Palynological characterization of honeys from honeybees (Apis mellifera) from twelve municipalities of the department of La Libertad, El Salvador

Abstract

The study was conducted in 12 municipalities in the department of La Libertad, El Salvador, which included Tamanique, Quezaltepeque, La Libertad, Santa Tecla, San Matías, Talnique, Tacachico, Tepecoyo, San Juan Opico, Jayaque, Sacacoyo and Colón. The execution period of the study ranged from October 2017 to July 2019. The investigation consisted of a field and a laboratory phase. The field phase was carried out in the department of La Libertad (territorial extension 1,652.88km²), where samples of flowers and honey were obtained. The flowers were collected from 28 apiaries in straight line within a perimeter of one kilometer. The samples were transported in newspaper bags and stored under refrigeration until processing in the laboratory. Honey samples (30 g) were collected in sterile plastic bottles (60 ml) and kept at room temperature until processing. The laboratory phase was conducted in the Palynology Laboratory of the University of El Salvador. Samples were processed by the acetolysis method. The honey was characterized into monofloral and multifloral based on the identification of pollen grains. Sixty honey samples corresponding to two harvests and 72 samples of flowering plant species were processed. The main results were the characterization of 12 honey samples in monoflorals of the families Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Myrtaceae, and subfamilies Papilionaceae and Mimosaceae of the Fabaceae family. Furthermore, 48 honey samples were characterized in multifloral. Twenty-one families were identified, of which 16 counties had secondary pollen, 6 intermediate minor pollen and 4 minor pollen. At the botanical level in the field, 37 families, 100 species and 11 genera were identified. It was established that the related municipalities were Tacachico, La Libertad and Tamanique for the families Malvaceae, Fabaceae, subfamily Mimosaceae. Sacacoyo, Santa Tecla and Quezaltepeque were related to each other by the families Asteraceae and Bignoniaceae, through the Principal Component Analysis with 70.08% of the total variation of the data. The main conclusion was the classification of 60 honey samples from 12 municipalities of the department of La Libertad, of which 12 were monofloral and 48 multifloral